Steven Wright to perform on Saturday in Northampton

Steven Wright will perform on Saturday night at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton.

By GEORGE LENKER

Complete the following sentence:

"It's a small world..."

A) "...after all."

B) "...but I wouldn't want to paint it."

If you chose B, then you will definitely want to be at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton Saturday night. If you picked A, you probably need to be there, because you obviously have missed out on the fabulous comedy Steven Wright has been delivering for more than two decades now.

Although it now may seem impossible for Wright to have pursued any other career, he wasn't sure he was going to be a comic until about a year before he actually started taking his act on the road.

"I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, but I knew I wanted to try it," he said in a telephone interview last week. "I was funny as a kid but I wasn't a class clown. I was never telling jokes but I was always kidding around."

So in his early 20s, Wright went down to a local comedy club and observed comics on a regular night while preparing some jokes of his own. After he got about three minutes of material together, he screwed up his courage and took the stage.

"They laughed at about a third of it, but that was enough to encourage me," he said. "I was terrified though."

Now, with his deadpan delivery and stage presence, it's hard to imagine Wright being terrified, and he says he no longer gets any stage fright.

"I don't get afraid but I feel some tension," he said. "When you have that many people looking at you, you can't be totally relaxed."

Although he remains a popular comic, he oddly has only issued two CDs in his entire career. The reason? He wasn't sure he had a second album's worth of material and never planned a second one until a few years ago. ("I Still Have a Pony" which is a follow-up to 1985's "I Have a Pony.")

"I didn't make a second because I didn't know if I had another one in me," he said. "But I thought I should reach another generation now, so I made another one."

Wright said he gets his ideas randomly and doesn't have a set writing schedule.

"It just comes to me. I don't try to write jokes. I notice things throughout the day," he said. "I write them all in different notebooks without lines. I don't like lines on paper. I used to draw a lot and I like a blank piece of white paper. I like how it looks."

Wright's drawing ability has also led him to do paintings and his artistic ability doesn't stop there.

Although audiences know he performs some humorous songs in concert, many may not be aware he also writes and records more serious tunes, which are quite good. (You can hear some of Wright's songs at www.stevenwright.com/music_paint/music.html)

"I've been doing it for about 20 years," he said. "I do it mostly for fun." So what would he have done had comedy not worked out for him? "I thought maybe I'd be a guy on the radio, or maybe advertising," he said.

"Something where I could use my creativity."

Finally, as a Boston native and avid sports fan, Wright is asked about the Red Sox' chances, something he likes to discuss.

"I think they're pretty good. I think it's a matter of who's hot at the end of the year. But it's going to be pretty crowded at the top," he said. "What do you think?"